Another reasonable night sleep. I woke up around 6 AM. I did my homework and then had my usual bagel breakfast and coffee.
I had seen on Google maps that was the top shop in the opposite direction it opens at 8 o'clock. I want to see what possible tarts they had that I could get in for dinner and I chose a potato pie.
I came back to the apartment, got my things ready left for the language school. I picked up a hot chocolate on the way.
I have to say that the first half of the lesson was extremely boring. So boring that even the teacher at one stage seemed to not off. It was on punctuation. The second half was more interesting in that it was at least interactive.
I decided I will go to the fine arts Museum in the afternoon. Again this was a walk up some very steep hills. My calf muscles must be improving on a daily basis with all the hills!
On rue Saint Jean, I saw a restaurant that had fish and chips on the menu. They sounded perfect. The fish was haddock and it was very tasty though the batter was not what I expected. I have to say though that I'm not very keen on this modern practice of putting chips and a metal basket. It's a pain. I just want my chips where I can pick them up easily! I'm not fussy at all!
Rue Saint Jean seem to be the center of high end grocery shops. This one was is the oldest one in Quebec. Inside it was full of wooden shelves and very pretty but to be honest, most of the food seem to be the type of food you could find in most supermarkets.
On the same road was this chocolate shop and museum. The museum wasn't really very interesting – just a room full of chocolate related exhibits. However the smell in here was amazing. It was chocolatey without being too chocolatey.
I bought my mother-in-law some maple syrup chocolates.
All in all, this was a good street to find. It was full of restaurants and shops so was nice for a wander.
The museum is made up of three buildings, inter connected by tunnels.
Having been at the observatory a few days ago, I had a voucher which gave me 20% off the price of entrance. It cost C$16 which I thought was very reasonable especially when compared to the Ilot des Palais earlier in the week.
The first building housed the contemporary art. Some of it was very good...
Some of it was amusing (yes that is a stuffed chimpanzee)...
And others was simply bizarre. As I've mentioned before, I just don't understand artwork like the above. It's three white canvases. While the blurb said that if you looked at it it could make you dizzy and tried to justify it as being artwork, I can confirm that having stared at it it was still just three white canvases.
I loved the chandelier made out of household glassware.
The second building was housed in an old prison. Architecturally it was stunning.
They even had the old cells. This one was no bigger than a single bed. Some were about double the width. Again I loved the vaulted ceiling. Though I'm not sure being imprisoned in there I would have had the same opinion.
There was a café in this part of the museum, so I had a small coffee and a maple syrup cake. As this was a small coffee, I'm not sure what a big coffee would have looked like.
As before, I really liked some exhibits but had raised eyebrows at others. This statue was apparently a fish. Having looked at it for a while, I still struggled to work out how it was a fish.
There were lovely views over the St. Lawrence River towards the southern part of the province. You can tell from the building that it may have been a prison in the past.
The third building was probably my least favorite, though I don't know whether that was because I was getting really tired. This particular installation was truly bizarre!
Having said that, this installation was quite thought-provoking. On the one hand they had a classic paintings of the noblesse. On the other hand, there were caricatures of slaves who had run away. These drawings have been done by different Quebec artists from descriptions in the newspaper reports on their absence. In some respects, it was actually quite sad.
This was probably one of my favorite installations, it's difficult to tell from the picture but it is tripods with cameras on the end. The cameras continually went off making a clicking sound and setting off their flashes. It reminded me of something out of Doctor Who. I don't know why. Having said that, the noise must've driven the employees mad as it continually made a whirling and popping noise.
It took me about 40 minutes to walk back to the apartment. Thankfully it was all downhill. By this stage I was completely exhausted.
The apartment has a washing and drying machine so I took the opportunity to start my washing. At least I'll be going home with virtually no washing to be done.
I had the potato tart for my dinner. When I cut it open it looked really unappetizing because it was simply mashed potato but in fact it was really tasty.
I nipped out to get a bottle of lemonade and then spent the evening relaxing in bed again I think I fell asleep about 9:30 PM.